Struggling with an unresponsive app or a buggy game? The Windows Task Manager is your go-to solution, but with Windows 11, you don’t always need it. Not many users know this, but you can actually close malfunctioning apps right from the taskbar by adding the “End Task” option to it, making things much simpler.
Add End Task to The Taskbar Through Windows Settings
The first thing you need to do is navigate to Windows Settings. A quick Win + I should do the trick. Now, select System in the left pane.
Click on For developers. This will open the developer settings for Windows 11, which contains plenty of options to play around with. Toggle the End Task switch to on. This will add the End task option to the taskbar.
Now, right-clicking on any application in the taskbar and you should see the End task option. Clicking it will force quit the respective app.
Tip: Here’s what to do if you need to fix an unresponsive taskbar in Windows 11.
Add End Task to Taskbar Through Windows Registry
Another method to add End Task to the taskbar in WIndows 11 is through the Registry Editor.
Press Win + R to open the Run dialog. Type regedit into the dialog box and click OK to open the Registry Editor (alternatively, you can try other ways to open the Registry Editor in Windows).
Navigate to the following path:
Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\TaskbarDeveloperSettings
On the right-hand side, you should see a TaskbarEndTask value now. Right-click on TaskbarEndTask, select Modify, and change the Value data in the new dialog box from 0 to 1.
Hit OK to save, and you’re done! You should now be seeing an End task option when you right-click on any running application in the taskbar.
FYI: Here are some more ways to get the most out of your Windows Registry.
If you do not see the TaskbarDeveloperSettings key after expanding the Advanced key in regedit, simply right-click on Advanced, and select New -> Key.
Name this new key TaskbarDeveloperSettings. With that done, create a new 32-bit value in this new key, called TaskbarEndTask. For that, select the new key you’ve just created, and right-click anywhere on the right-hand side.
Related: Here’s how to move and resize the Windows Taskbar if you want to play around with it.
Select New, and click on DWORD (32-bit) Value. Name this new value TaskbarEndTask. With this new value added, simply right-click on it, select Modify, and change its Value data from 0 to 1.
This lesser-known feature in Windows 11 is certainly an appreciated one. Sometimes, Task Manager can misbehave or be disabled by the administrator. If that happens, you can follow these methods to fix Task Manager and get it up and running again.
Image credit: All images by Samarveer Singh
